General advice for innovative businesses

With news of the continued spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) both domestically and internationally, we are aware that for innovative businesses like yours, this will have a potential impact on supply chains, business continuity and cashflow.

We recognise that the nature of these impacts will evolve and are likely to increase over the coming weeks, potentially months.

We are working to understand the impacts on companies as the situation evolves.

Innovate UK is still operational

Please be reassured that Innovate UK has business continuity measures in place and is continuing to operate.

If you have any concerns or potential challenges around your financial position, particularly cashflow issues, we recommend you speak with your investors and your bank.

Many banks have set up specific funds and support for affected businesses, some of which is underpinned by the government.

If you have an Innovate UK award

Contact your monitoring officer

If you are an Innovate UK award recipient, also contact your Innovate UK monitoring officer, who will keep us informed and allow us to assess if we can offer support too.

The earlier you speak with your monitoring officer, the easier it will be to understand your issues and find potential solutions.

Speak to your local EEN advisor

Specialist advisers from the Innovate UK Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) team, located regionally, are also there to help and support you.

We will continue to monitor the ongoing impact of coronavirus on the companies we support to ensure we can provide the best support whilst managing public money appropriately.

Contacting Official Receivers offices

Contacting the Long Term Asset and Distribution Team

Mail sent to the Official Receiver

Scheduled interviews with an Official Receiver

Reports to creditors

Income Payments Agreements and Orders

Official Receivers and their staff are working from home until further notice. If you need to contact us please email the office that is managing your case.

Contact details for Official Receiver offices

Mail sent to the Official Receiver

While our offices are closed we will not be able to process any physical mail sent to the Official Receiver.

We will aim to deal with emails promptly, but please bear with us as we expect the closure of offices to result in an increase in messages requiring a response. If you need to send us attachments to emails please ensure you take steps to minimise the file size, for example by zipping the documents.

Scheduled interviews with an Official Receiver

We’re not currently undertaking face to face interviews in our cases, so do not attend for any pre-arranged appointments. Please contact the Official Receiver dealing with your case and arrangements will be made for you to supply information electronically or over the telephone.

If you have been made bankrupt or are director of a company that is in liquidation and have not yet spoken to someone at the Insolvency Service it is important that you contact us without delay.

Reports to creditors

Reports to creditors will be issued in due course. If you are a creditor and urgently require a report to creditors please contact the Official Receiver dealing with the case and we will make provision to send this to you electronically.

Income Payments Agreements and Orders

If you are having difficulty making payments under an Income Payments Agreement or Order please contact the Official Receiver or LTADT team dealing with your case.

This update applies to all supply chain employees working under the NAECI and CIJC agreements, except those who are required to attend work to support nuclear safety and security as identified by Sellafield Ltd.

On Monday (23 March), we communicated that project work on the Sellafield site would be paused for 48 hours.

This was to plan changes to work patterns and welfare provisions.

To allow for deeper planning, and taking into account government guidance, this pause has been extended until the end of this week.

Supply chain employees will continue be paid in line with guarantee provisions in existing agreements. This includes the requirement to remain available to work. This situation could change and you may be called into work during this period.

Any travelling workers who are currently in accommodation will be paid accommodation allowance for this week. People who wish to return home may do so, but they may need to provide a receipt so their employer can pay them under the HMRC concession.

If a travelling worker is required to return to work, they will be notified at least 17 hours before they are needed. For example, they would be contacted at 2:00 pm for a 7:00am start the next day. Your employer will contact you if you are needed for this work.

Employees of Mite Civilian Guard Force, One FM Soft Services, and Cavendish Radiometrics should continue to work, as advised on Monday (23 March).

Sellafield Ltd employees who have been working on site this week should continue to do so.

Mr Speaker, we have Foreign & Commonwealth Office staff in all our 280 posts in 168 countries and 10 overseas territories. And they are working around the clock to respond to this global pandemic.

What we have done

Over the last 3 days, we have seen 80 countries place restrictions on their borders.

That situation is unprecedented in scale and our over-riding priority now is to assist the thousands of British travellers who need and want to return home. Bearing in mind the hundreds of thousands of UK nationals who may be travelling at any one point in time.

Following last week’s decision to advise against all but essential travel globally, last night, I changed our travel advice again because of the rate of new border restrictions.

We strongly advise those British people who are currently travelling abroad but live in the UK to return as soon as possible, where they are still able to because commercial routes are still running.

Where commercial options are limited or prevented by domestic restrictions, we are in close contact with the airlines and local authorities in those countries to overcome those barriers to enable people to return home.

With my ministerial team and indeed across the diplomatic network, we are engaging with numerous governments to keep commercial routes open, particularly in transit hubs.

The Department for Transport is working closely with airlines to ensure travellers can rebook or find alternative routes home.

Update on critical cases

I know honourable members on all sides will have had constituents who have contacted them in relation to particular countries, so can I update on just a few of the countries.

On Peru, I spoke to the Foreign Minister at the weekend, and we have agreed special arrangements for flights to return British nationals later this week.

I spoke to the Singaporean Foreign Minister this morning and we have agreed to work together to help those stranded to get back to the UK, and indeed Peruvian nationals get back to Peru.

Given Singapore’s role as a transit hub, this commitment to work with us to enable UK nationals to transit via Singapore is particularly important. Not least for those currently in Australia or New Zealand.

In New Zealand, the High Commission is working with airlines, airports and the New Zealand government to keep flight routes open and reopen some that have closed.

In Australia, the High Commission is doing the same. They have also opened a register of British nationals hoping to return to the UK and are supporting British nationals via phone calls, and walk-in appointments at the Commission, as well as updating social media pages.

Update on consular Aasistance

For those trying to get home in other countries, we are providing as much practical advice as is physically possible.

We first of all would advise all travellers to take a look at the Travel Advice online. It is the best and most comprehensive source of information, and it is updated in real time.

If people are in need of urgent assistance, they should call our Embassies and High Commissions. They will be automatically connect to our consular contact centres – the global centres based in Malaga and Ottawa.

We know that there has been considerable pressure, because of the restrictions being placed by countries around the world and the rate at which it is being done with limited or no notice. We have doubled our capacity, we are now doubling it again to deal with the surge in demand.

Mr Speaker we are helping to reduce travel costs by encouraging airlines to have maximum flexibility on changing return tickets. Where people are in real need, our consular teams will work with them to consider their options and, as a last resort, we offer an emergency loan.

International strategy

More broadly, the UK is working alongside our international partners to deliver our international strategy which rests on four key points:

• to provide resilience to the most vulnerable countries
• to pursue a vaccine
• to keep vital trade routes and supply chains for food stuffs, medicines and other things open, and
• to provide reciprocal support for return of our British nationals who otherwise are at risk of being stranded.

These are the right priorities. We are working day and night to keep British people safe at home and abroad.